A blog that focuses on our unique program to teach children to gentle wild horses and start colts using natural horsemanship. This blog discusses our efforts to prevent the extinction of the Corolla Spanish Mustang. We are the home of Tradewind, a formerly wild Corolla Spanish mustang stallion who was named the 2011 National Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year by the Horse of the Americas Registry. We are an American Indian Horse Registry Hall of Fame Farm.

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Monday, January 2, 2017

Tough As A Billy Goat: Conditioning For The 25 Mile March Mudness Ride

Deer season ends here the first Saturday in January. Our woods riding is radically reduced from Oct1, when bow season comes in, until the close of deer season. Our winters are generally damp and the woods often muddy until the spring vegetation comes out.

We jump start our program by training for our in house "March Mudness 25 Mile Ride". The event is timed and there is a heart rate check for the horses at the tenth mile and the 20th mile. Riders go at their own pace. The purpose of the event is not to see who has the fastest horse. It is to allow individual riders to reap the benefits of having worked their horses and their bodies to a level of fitness that allows for the completion of such a ride.

Everyone is different both physically and emotionally. There is no one perfect conditioning regimen for every rider. The one thing true for everyone is that the best exercise for riding is to ride and ride..and then ride more.

Here is how I prepare for the event.

I am 57 years old, by most measures fifty pounds over weight, by my own gauge about 30 pounds over weight, with my most significant limitation being a bone spur in my neck that causes chronic and, at times, severely acute pain in my left shoulder. I am a prosecutor with a very heavy caseload. Though I have ridden little in the last three months I am used to heavy mileage having ridden a total of 1002 miles during the first six months of 2016.

Diet--emphasize protein and fat consumption and work hard to keep simple carbohydrate consumption in check. Work hard to keep biome in my digestive tract in great shape by eating kim chee or sour kraught daily and taking a probiotic daily along with five spoonfuls of psyllium powder each morning. When training I take creatine monohydrate, a senior men's vitamin, B12 and D supplements and fish oil pills.

Exercise- Tabata Protocol five mornings a week, some days using heavy bag punching, other days using Farmer's Walk intense intervals--three days a week add in heavy quadricep curls--plan to put in short sessions of barefoot jogging three days a week.

Riding--Shoot for riding 30-50 miles a week with at least 85% of that being at a trot.

This is not much of an exercise routine for a twenty year old athlete but it serves me well. I am only putting this out as an example of my training regimen. I am sure that others will find other regimens that work better for them.

The bottom line is that the better condition you are in the more you will enjoy riding and the more your horse will enjoy being ridden.

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About Me

In my coat and tie life I am a prosecutor in Smithfield, Virgina. In my boots and blue jeans life am Executive Director of the Gwaltney Frontier Farm, Inc, an non profit organizations which administers Mill Swamp Indian Horses. We raise mustangs, including the rare and endangered Corolla Spanish Mustangs. We teach natural horsemanship to students as young as five years old. I have written several articles on natural horsemanship and recently published my first book, "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them: Learning From Wild Horses and Small Children. I was a recipient of the Keeper of the Flame Award from the American Indian horse Association for our efforts to preserve the Corolla Spanish mustangs and in 2009 we were recognized by the Horse of the Americas Registry with the Carol Stone Ambassador Award. In 2011 we received the Currituck Star Award for our Corolla preservation efforts.
My wife, Beth Edwards and I have three daughters and five grandchildren. See our web site, www.msindianhorses.com

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